Die Tageszeitung, 07.06.2005

Robert Misik asks whether anything good can come of the recent "non" and "nee" to the EU constitution in France and Holland. Jürgen Habermas' commentary yesterday in the Süddeutsche Zeitung (more here) didn't leave him full of hope. "It seems to me quite absurd that Habermas is still pinning his hopes on a 'core Europe' that marches forward while the others waver. But astonishingly, the Pontifex Maximus of critical theory does not write a single word about how a core Europe is thinkable without France. Or does he believe it is? He could have told us. In any case, Germany should be part of it. For Habermas, saving Europe is the last project the 68er generation of Leftist politicians should stand behind before they take their bows. If Schröder and Fischer threw themselves once more into the breach for that cause, says Habermas, their 'exit could take on greater meaning'. A nice thought, a sweet hope."

Isolde Charim interprets Adam Krzeminski's essay on the various European cultures of memory of the Second World War from a Lacanian point of view and concludes: "The disappearance of different national narratives does not reflect the predominance of the historical truth, but rather the emergence of a new myth: the national heroic legends are being replaced by an abstract sufferance and a general victimhood. The moral equalising of all victims of the Second World War has gone far beyond revisionism to become a general discourse which demands a general recognition of sufferance – be it the Germans under the bombardment of the Allies or that of the expelled peoples."


Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 07.06.2005

"A mixture of carnival and serious business," is how Ulf Meyer describes the world fair Expo 2005 in Aichi in Japan. "The theme of the Expo is 'the Wisdom of Nature', but this was doggedly ignored by almost all of the participants. The 'human zoo' of national pavilions, which was always the main attraction of a world exposition before the advent of mass tourism, is still central in Aichi. According to the wishes of the organisers, the 120 national pavilions should create an 'intercultural symphony'. But in fact they hardly rise above the level of a tourism trade fair."


Süddeutsche Zeitung, 07.06.2005

Two exhibitions celebrate the German expressionist group "Die Brücke" (the bridge), which was founded 100 years ago by four students. The show in the Moritzburg Foundation in Halle started Saturday, while the one in Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie opens tomorrow. Lothar Müller prefers the Moritzburg show. "One of the advantages of the Gerlinger collection is the emphasis placed on the self-dramatisation of the 'Brücke' painters, and on what today is called 'self-marketing'. The exhibition in Halle has not only an abundance of posters illustrating the way from the Dresden galleries to the 'New Secession' led by Max Pechstein in Berlin. One very nice part also traces the idea of 'passive membership', the yearly contributions, the omnipresence of vignettes and 'logos', the role of arts and crafts, and the advertisements for the 'Institute for Modern Painting' in Pechstein's atelier in Berlin."

In the nice little Jewish Museum in Hohenem, Petra Sterinberger visits an exhibition of Jewish kitsch. Lots is available on the Internet. "Audacious Goyim (non-Jews) can buy a 'I didn't kill your God' or 'I may be blonde but I'm Jewish' T shirt, or for those who still don't get the point: 'Kish Mir den Tuches' (Kiss my ass). For pet dogs there is kosher food and for those with more classical taste, the equivalent of the bellowing stag in the woods for the bedroom wall, nostalgic memories, happy Chassidim orthodox Jews and Schtetl Romantic. This is another form of kitsch, one that does not yearn back to the golden era of the Jewish Kingdom in Israel but rather to an eastern European Jewry of not so long ago."


Berliner Zeitung, 07.06.2005

Michaela Schlagenwerth interviews the choreographer Meg Stuart, who after three years at the Zurich Schauspielhaus is now choreographer in residence at Berlin's Volksbühne theatre. Her first piece there, "Forgeries, Love and other Matters" premieres tonight. For Stuart, the Volksbühne has something "direct, brazen and new" about it, that she sees as refreshing for her newly-cast troupe Damaged Goods. "I've spent thousands of hours investigating movement in the studio. Now I send the dancers to do their own research on the street. I ask them for example to find a double, someone who for some reason strikes them as similar to them. They're supposed to try to talk with the person, shoot a video with them, or invite them back to the studio. Or I ask the dancers to go out of the city and spend 24 hours in one place, even to sleep there. What happens to them, how do their wishes change in such a situation, which of their habits are still important? Such experiments with the modes of one's own thought are what interests me."